Shopper hurt at Filene's sues store

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, January 9, 2008

"I got whiplash. The headaches were horrible. How would you like to walk around for a month with blinding headaches ... constantly putting heating pads on ... taking pills?" asked the 52-year-old Marlborough, N.Y., resident.

Mallen is suing Filene's because she fell off a footrest she was sitting on in the store.

She was in Superior Court on Tuesday with her lawyer, Gregory Klein, trying to settle the case with the attorneys for the now-shuttered Filene's and Homedics, the distributor of the footrest.

Klein said, "Filene's staff, in assembling this model for display, failed to secure the cross bracket and that's why it collapsed."

The two sides left court Tuesday without reaching a settlement, so a trial date was set for May 28.

The lawyers for the defendants declined to comment.

Klein said that "Filene's lawyers are not certain whether the product arrived ready for display from Homedics, in which case they could pass a share of the liability on to Homedics. They sued them on that theory but are still investigating whether it is true."

Mallen said she went to the Danbury Fair mall with her son, now 23, and his girlfriend, to do Christmas shopping on Nov. 26, 2004. They were looking at furniture in Filene's when the accident happened.

"It collapsed under me ... It literally flew out from under me," she said. "I fell backward and to break my fall, I put my arms behind me."

She said she suffered injuries to her arms, losing 20 percent function in each. She is suing for the suffering she endured and for medical bills.

Mallen said the pain has been with her daily. "(I) can't drive without being in pain," Mallen said. "I haven't slept well since I've gotten hurt."

She said she has gained weight since the incident, too, because of the pills she has to take.

"You have to eat to pop pain pills," Mallen, a teacher, said.

Klein, of Danbury, said his client deserves to win.

"Shoppers expect and are entitled to reasonably safe conditions as they go about the stores," he said.